$50 Million Targeted to UB

the research work “will create an entirely new industry for Western New York.’’

Andrew Cuomo, Governor

NY State

The initiative is modeled after the governor’s successful
blueprint for nanotechnology innovation in Albany, which has
produced groundbreaking research, attracted significant private
investment to the region and created thousands of new jobs.

The governor’s investment in UB and NYGC is expected to
spur the development of companies on the Buffalo Niagara Medical
Campus that support genomic medicine, such as companies that will
focus on diagnostics and information technology essential to
breakthroughs in personalized medicine.

UB was selected as co-lead for the effort because of its
expertise in high performance computing, combined with recognized
national leadership in genomics and medical research and analysis
of patient data using the vast capabilities within its Center for
Computational Research, New York State Center of Excellence in
Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, and Institute for Healthcare
Informatics. Each of these UB research centers reside on the
Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC).

Thomas Furlani, the director of UB's Center for Computational
Research, said the money will help upgrade existing facilities to
increase the computing and storing capacity of data. Currently,
Furlani said the UB facility crunches two to three terabytes of
data per day – and one terabyte is roughly the equivalent of
the information contained in 100,000 phone books. Furlani said it
used to take 10 years to map a human genome. Now, it takes one
day. But researchers want to get results even faster.
"Patients can't wait that long," Furlani said. "We're going to be
able to get answers to our scientific questions much quicker."